Don`t Cut Academic Standards To Reduce Exessive Dropout Rate

had some cogent advice recently for education ``reformers`` who believe academic standards need to be lowered in order to cut down on Florida`s immense school dropout rate.

``That would not eliminate failure,`` the governor said in a recent address to the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches. ``It would simply ship failure to a later point in life.``

How true. It also would teach students the wrong lesson. That is, if you don`t succeed, there`s no need to worry, since the establishment will make things easier for you.

Students operating under that assumption will be in for a rude awakening when they enter the job market and discover that employers are far more demanding than their ``friends`` in the educational community.

There`s no arguing that Florida faces an immense problem in its dropout rate. In fact, more than one out of three students who enter the 9th grade fail to finish high school.

The social ramifications of this are immense. Without adequate schooling, many dropouts are unable to find decent jobs. The result is idleness, which often can lead to crime.

The high dropout rate also is becoming a concern of employers. During the next two decades, the adolescent population is expected to drop by about one- quarter, which means the labor pool will shrink substantially. If the high dropout rate continues, it will become harder and harder for employers to find educated people to fill available jobs.

Unless strict standards are maintained, however, a high school diploma means little. Florida came to that realization a decade ago when the concept of social promotion -- advancing students so they won`t bear the psychological scars of having failed -- became a state scandal. Whatever social benefits that accrued from this policy were more than offset by the fact that a lot of students couldn`t read.

It took a concerted effort on the part of parents, clear-headed educators and the Legislature to turn the system around by demanding student accountability and performance. To turn back the clock on the advances of the last decade in order to lower the dropout rate would be the height of folly.

What`s needed instead is a continuing effort to upgrade quality, for quality gives meaning to education, and meaning, more than anything, can help keep young people in school.